You already know your website is the first line of communication for prospective and current customers trying to learn more about your products and services. But if you’re not digging deeper and making sure it also works as a conversation starter with a positive consumer experience, you’re much more likely to lose business than earn it—and all it takes is one negative experience. In fact, 88 percent of online consumers report being less likely to return to a site after a bad experience.

To use the software to your advantage and improve your HubSpot ROI, your website must accomplish two key things: 1) provide visitors with the valuable information they’re looking for, and 2) make that information as seamless as possible to find.

Sounds easy enough, right? How do you know if your website checks off the right boxes? Here are 10 questions to help you figure it out.

10 Must-Ask Website Audit Questions

Are your website pages optimized for highly searched keywords?

Since you took the time to get to know your customers, you already should have clear insight into the keywords they’re searching for to address their biggest pain points. By optimizing your website pages with these keywords, you can help increase the chances that prospects will find you when they’re searching for answers.

Is the website’s user experience optimized for customer preferences?

Just like you don’t want to guess about what your customers are searching for, you also don’t want to make assumptions about what they want in a website experience. Conduct testing and solicit feedback to determine what type of experience your customers prefer.

Is it easy for visitors to find what they want?

If they have to search for it for too long, they’re likely to stop looking. Make your navigation intuitive and accessible.

Is your site content optimized for buyer pain points and key messages?

This goes back to providing visitors with the valuable information they’re looking for. If your website isn’t addressing their problems and offering solutions, customers simply will look elsewhere to find what they need.

Are there clear and prominent lead conversion offers your customers want?

Your website should walk your customers through the conversion process. Don’t make them wonder how they can connect with you or show you they want to learn more. By making offers readily available—and actually relevant to their needs—you can remind customers exactly what you can do for them.

Are there effective landing pages and strategically placed calls-to-action to capture leads?

Don’t let leads slip through your fingertips. Set your website up to nurture and capture those leads so your sales team can work on closing.

Is your site mobile-friendly (responsive)?

A mobile-friendly website is essential to today’s user experience. As more and more consumers are looking for answers on their phones or tablets, they’re losing patience with websites that require pinching and zooming. With a responsive website, you can ensure they get a good user experience, regardless of what device they’re using.

Is your website on the HubSpot COS?

Does your site load quickly and consistently across all devices and browsers?

If the answer is no, don’t wait too long to address the problem. People are naturally impatient and slow loading will make them look elsewhere before your website even has a chance to engage them.

Are there any search engine errors and warnings (like missing pages) that need to be fixed?

It’s easy to let small errors slip to the bottom of the to-do list when you’re focusing on bigger problems. However, those small errors can impact your search engine rankings, so taking the time to fix them is well worth your while.

A successful inbound marketing approach has a lot of working parts and important tools—and your website should be one of the biggest assets you have. By creating a site that is fully optimized, responsive and catered to consumer experience, you’ll have a better chance of seeing your search, paid media and inbound campaigns pay off. And with more qualified sales leads, you won’t have to wait to see improvements to your HubSpot ROI.

The Author

With over 30 years of business and marketing experience, John loves to blog about ideas and trends that challenge inbound marketers and sales and marketing executives. John has a unique way of blending truth with sarcasm and passion with wit. You can connect with John via LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus.